


Trouble for Two

by Kiraly



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: F/M, Holding Hands, Non-Immunes in the Silent World what could go wrong?, Troll attack, also from now on this is the tag I'm using for Kitty, because it annoys me there isn't really an official one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 06:50:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7034392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiraly/pseuds/Kiraly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reynir and Tuuri go off on their own and find a little more excitement than they bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trouble for Two

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gwenno](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gwenno/gifts).



> This is my contribution for the Multimedia Fanworks Exchange. Gwenno's prompt was "Tuuri and Reynir have wandered off by themselves and encounter a troll..."  
> As soon as I saw the characters requested, I knew this was the prompt I wanted to write. I hope you enjoy it!

Fallen leaves crunched under two pairs of boots. A twig snapped, and Reynir looked over his shoulder. “Are you _sure_ this is a good idea? I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to—”

Tuuri tugged on the end of Reynir’s braid and raised an eyebrow. “What, are you worried we’ll get in trouble?”

“No! Well, yes, but not just that.” Reynir reclaimed his braid and wrung it between nervous hands. “I just don’t think we should get too far away from the tank. What if something happens?”

“We aren’t going _that_ far,” Tuuri reminded him, “only far enough into the trees to find some dry firewood. Mikkel _did_ ask us to find some, remember? It’s not _our_ fault the branches closer to the edge were too wet to burn.”

Reynir ducked to avoid getting smacked in the face by a low-hanging branch. “He also told us to come straight back,” he muttered. He made no move to stop her though. Instead, he used his long legs to boost himself over a fallen tree and reached back to offer a hand so she could scramble after him. If he held on for longer than was strictly necessary...well, this was the Silent World. There was no shame in clinging to small comforts. And Tuuri didn’t seem to mind.

He was starting to relax and wondering if he could could find a way to hold her hand again—and maybe keep holding it, this time—when something rustled in the bushes. Reynir froze; Tuuri stumbled into him, then stilled and peered into the underbrush. In the sudden quiet, they heard it again: the soft dry sound of something moving near the forest floor. _“Do you see anything?”_ she whispered.

Reynir shook his head, just enough for her to see. His gaze darted back and forth, looking for any sign of movement. Behind him, he felt Tuuri turning to set her back against his. The forest seemed to hold its breath. Reynir held his, too.

An explosion of sound behind him. Even though he’d been waiting for it, Reynir couldn’t hold back a yelp of terror that mixed with the flurry of dry leaves, Tuuri’s gasp, the rustle that meant _something_ was coming towards them—

“Miu?”

Reynir whirled, and Tuuri’s indrawn breath turned into a choked laugh. “Gods, Kisu! We nearly died of fright!”

The kitten trotted towards them, floundering through the leaf litter until she fetched up against the toe of Reynir’s boot. She rubbed her head against his shin, purring loud enough to wake the dead. He stooped to pick her up, willing his heartbeat to drop back to normal. “Aww, did you miss us, Kisa? I told you I was coming back soon.” The cat allowed him to cuddle her for a minute, then squirmed to be let down. She had grown since they first found her, and was now big enough that she couldn’t be carried in a pocket anymore.  Which also meant they couldn’t easily prevent her from going where she wanted to go—usually, anywhere Reynir was.

Tuuri regarded the kitten with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. “Well, I guess we know who her favorite person is. Do you think she would ride on your shoulder? It’s going to be hard to carry her once we find some firewood.”

“I think she’ll be okay on her own,” Reynir said. “After all, she did find us out here.”

“Right.” Tuuri turned her assessing gaze to him. “Speaking of things finding us...we should probably get moving before something more dangerous shows up. You did scream pretty loud.”

Reynir felt a blush creeping across his face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to, I just thought...it wasn’t _that_ loud, was it?”

Tuuri grinned and patted him on the arm. “Yeah...it kind of was. But don’t worry, we have Kisu to protect us now.” She started walking again. “Come on, I think I see a downed tree over there. Maybe it has branches that we can use.”

There was firewood aplenty by the tree Tuuri had pointed out, and soon Reynir had a respectable load strapped to his back. He breathed a sigh of relief. _We can go back now, and nothing bad even happened!_ He bent to pick up some branches for Tuuri’s load when something rustled in the underbrush. He froze. “Kisa?”

It wasn’t the cat. She stood in the middle of the clearing, staring at something just out of sight. She appeared to be growing—or no, not growing, fluffing up. A tiny hiss escaped her.

“Tuuri…” Reynir began, but she had seen it too and hushed him. They waited with bated breath, every nerve on edge. Then it emerged from its hiding place behind a tree. Reynir spotted yellowed teeth, protruding ribs and at least three clawed tentacles. That was all he had time for; the creature launched itself towards them and Kisa pounced, yowling with every ounce of rage her tiny body could hold. Leaf debris flew everywhere. Reynir forgot everything he’d ever been told about staying still during a troll attack and clutched at Tuuri, who squeezed him back so hard he could barely breathe. Another battle shriek sounded from the chaos in front of them, then silence. The dust settled. Reynir cracked his eyes open. From the blood-spattered circle of dead leaves, Kisa blinked and licked her chops. “Miu?”

Tuuri’s grip loosened just a fraction, and Reynir managed to unclench his fingers from her arms. Slowly, scarcely able to believe that he _wasn’t_ being eaten by a troll, he took a step toward the cat. She looked incredibly pleased with herself; the vermin beast was nearly twice her size. From the looks of it, she’d snapped its neck.

“Kisu, you saved us!” Tuuri squeaked. The kitten purred, strolled over to rub herself around Reynir’s ankles. He scratched her ears, trying not to think about what Mikkel would say when they got back to the tank smeared with troll gore. It was already too late for his boots, so he might as well tell Kisa how brave she was.

“Such a good girl! You’re so strong and clever, look at you!”

More purring. The phrase ‘the cat who stole the cream’ came to mind. Reynir wished he had some cream to give her; she deserved a whole bucket of it.

“Umm, Reynir...I hate to interrupt, but we should probably get back,” Tuuri said.

“Right.” He got to his feet. “We don’t want to wait for something else to find us.”

Tuuri was looking toward the trees in the direction where the beast had come from. She nodded slowly. “Yeah...also, it might be too late for that? It sort of seems like something else is coming our way. Something bigger.” She pointed at the sky, where a flock of birds scattered from the trees as though fleeing something. He could hear more rustling in the underbrush, which either meant many small animals escaping a predator, or—

“Reynir?”

“Yes?”

Tuuri’s voice was barely a whisper. “You know what they say about standing still and keeping quiet if a troll is nearby?”

“Yeeees.”

“To Hel with that. Let’s run.”

She didn’t have to tell him twice. Reynir snatched the cat up in one hand, caught Tuuri’s hand in the other, and followed the other defenseless creatures in the only direction he could think of: _away_. They didn’t stop running until they were clear of the trees and in sight of the tank. That’s when they _really_ ran into trouble.

“What were you _thinking?!”_ Sigrun demanded for the fifth time. She and Emil had returned from their book hunting just in time to see Reynir and Tuuri emerge from the woods, running like a troll was on their tails. When she found out that a troll really _was_ on their tails, she’d been so livid she couldn’t speak. Even after she and Emil killed the pursuing troll—which hadn’t been very big, and therefore not at all satisfying—she’d spent an hour lecturing the two of them about how lucky they were and reminding them that they were on the mutiny list for the rest of their lives, even if they outlived her. All this happened while Mikkel put them through the complete decontamination procedure, though neither of them had been within spitting distance of the troll and Reynir only had a few specks of blood on his glove and boots. When he finally allowed them to dress—which, in Reynir’s case, meant wearing a motley assortment of ill-fitting civilian clothes donated by the others—and go back in the tank, Sigrun found them again and continued her rant.

Eventually, Mikkel managed to drag Sigrun away by promising her food and asking to look at the day’s book haul. Tuuri slumped on her bunk, and after a moment’s hesitation Reynir sank down beside her.

“You know,” he said, “every time I wander off with you, it seems like we get in trouble.”

Tuuri nodded. “Yeah.” She sighed and rubbed at the red marks still pressed into her skin from her mask. “Sorry.”

She looked so discouraged; Reynir’s next words came out before he could stop himself. “It’s okay. I liked the part before the trolls. It was nice to spend some time with you.” He thought about stopping there, but...he _had_ faced down a troll today. By comparison, nothing else was really all that scary. So he took a deep breath, wiped his palm on the hem of his borrowed tunic, and covered Tuuri’s hand with his.

Tuuri looked at him then, blue eyes wide with surprise. Then they crinkled into a smile, and she turned her hand around to grip his.

“I liked that part, too,” she said. “And you know, even though we messed up, we didn’t do so badly. We went out into the woods, found _two_ trolls, and both of us came out without a scratch! That’s pretty good!”

“It is!” Reynir said. Now that her smile was back, he could feel his returning too. They’d made it out safe. At least for today, they’d be all right.

“And now that we know Kisu can take care of vermin beasts, we’ll be sure to take her with us next time,” Tuuri added. She squeezed Reynir’s hand and leaned against his shoulder.

It took Reynir a minute to catch it. “Wait... _next time?!”_

**Author's Note:**

> As is often the case, I can't decide if this is really shippy enough to warrant the tag. But my shipper goggles are broken when it comes to these two, so I figure it's better to just put it on there.
> 
> Also, I'm so sorry Reynir. Tuuri is probably going to lead you into _so much danger_ but at least you will get to hold her hand?


End file.
